Mod 3 - Antibodies Flashcards
What shape does an antibody molecule resemble?
Y shape.
What molecular components are antibodies made of?
Antibodies are glycoproteins that are composed of four polypeptide chains.
How many heavy and light chains do antibodies consist of?
Contains
2 identical heavy chains
2 identical light chains
What are the 5 different classes of antibodies and what are the classes based on?
Based on the heavy chains they possess.
- IgA (alpha)
- IgD (delta)
- IgE (epsilon)
- IgG (gamma)
- IgM (mu)
What do the light chains do and what are the two classes?
Light chains create diversity in the specificity.
Two types of light chains:
1. Kappa (K)
2. Lambda
Is there a functional difference between the two different types of light chains?
No
What light chain is most human antibodies made of?
Kappa chains, 66% of antibody population rather than lambda.
What holds the light and heavy chains together?
Disulfide bonds.
An antibody is a secreted for of an __________.
immunoglobulin, the B cell surface receptor.
What is the portion of an immunoglobulin molecule that attaches to the surface of B cell referred to as?
Transmembrane portion.
What is the constant region?
Region in the immunoglobulin or antibody where there is little variation in the polypeptides between different specificities.
What genes code for the constant region?
The Constant genes (C genes). There are constant genes for each of the heavy chains and light chains.
Now that was hard!
What region of the immunoglobin or antibody contains the antigen binding site? Where is it?
The VARIABLE region at the terminal ends where the antibody binds to the epitope.
The antibody or immunoglobin is symmetric or antisymmetric?
Symmetric.
How many binding sites does one monomer contain because the molecule is symmetric?
One monomer contains two identical binding sites with the same specificity.
What type of chains does the variable region contain?
Variable region is composed of both heavy and light chain regions.